Easy Now (2005)

"Like most musicians in the new mainstream of today's jazz world, pianist Orrin Evans uses composition to create modern challenges for modern impovisers. This would also include the drum thwacks that constitute part of the line of "Captain Black." Further, the playing here is consistently top-shelf. Evans often plays percussively, playing clusters, even pounding the piano. But that's hardly all he does. He can play gently and lyrically, or he can spin a long, swinging line. Although he sometimes alludes to Monk, Orrin Evans is very much his own man. Like saxophonist Ralph Bowen is. Heard here on alto and soprano sax rather than his customary tenor, Bowen reveals a lush, warm sound, almost as if he were trying to combine Eric Dolphy with Benny Carter or perhaps Lucky Thompson. Finally, J.D. Allen should be singled out for his warm, deeply moving tenor sax playing on "Song For My Father." He and Evans play the Horace Silver classic as a duet, that may be the highlight of the album." (Marc Meyers, AllAboutJazz)